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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

American Ebola patient discharged from hospital

Liz Szabo
USA TODAY
Former Ebola patient Richard Sacra looks to his wife, Debbie, during a news conference at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, on Sept. 25.

American doctor Richard Sacra, who contracted Ebola when delivering babies at a hospital in Liberia, survived his illness and was released from an Omaha hospital.

Sacra, 51, was flown to the Nebraska Medical Center this month because it has a special biocontainment unit designed to care for patients with dangerous infectious diseases. Sacra was in Liberia working as a medical missionary for SIM USA.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that two separate blood samples from Sacra, taken 24 hours apart, show the virus is no longer in his bloodstream.

"I am so grateful," Sacra said in a written statement. "Just so incredibly grateful to have gotten through this illness. Many were praying for me, even people I did not know personally. During the time I was here, there was a growing confidence that God was answering those prayers and that I was steadily improving."

Sacra, a family physician, asked people to continue to help patients in West Africa.

There are no approved drugs or vaccines for Ebola, but doctors believed that flying Sacra to a sophisticated hospital with a modern intensive-care unit would boost his chances of survival. Supportive care — including fluids to prevent dehydration and oxygen or ventilators for patients who can't breathe on their own — can keep patients alive until their bodies fight off the virus.

In the hospital, Sacra received a blood transfusion from another American physician who survived Ebola, Kent Brantly, in the hope that Brantly's blood would contain antibodies to help Sacra's immune system fight off the lethal virus. Brantly had received a blood transfusion from a teenage Ebola survivor.

Sacra is one of a handful of Ebola patients to receive an experimental drug called TKM-Ebola made by Canada's Tekmira Pharmaceuticals. The drug contains substances that stop the Ebola virus from reproducing.

Sacra's doctors don't know which of these therapies gets credit for his survival.

Sacra said he suffers from fatigue and can use his exercise bicycle for only five minutes. At a news conference, he joked with reporters, commenting on his surprise that he would be treated in Omaha. "I did say, 'Wow, Nebraska. Who made that decision?' " Sacra said.

Sacra said he is lucky he got to the hospital quickly.

"Other than a fever, I didn't really start feeling ill until Day 4" of the illness, Sacra said. "The day I fell ill was Tuesday. I was booked on a flight for Thursday. They had me on a plane headed here on Day 6 of my illness. I never felt like I was horribly, deathly ill. ... I never felt like I was not going to make it."

Sacra, who spent many years living in Africa, didn't rule out returning to Liberia.

"When I got there in early August, women literally had nowhere to go" to deliver their babies, Sacra said. "The odds that I will end up back there are pretty high."

Now that Sacra has recovered, he is immune to the strain of Ebola that infected him. There are five strains of Ebola, but only one is responsible for the outbreak in West Africa, which has affected 6,263 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal and Nigeria.

Sacra's recovery is a bright spot amid otherwise sobering news about Ebola's march through West Africa.

The World Health Organization announced Thursday that the epidemic's death toll has climbed to 2,917 people. This week, the CDC released a report predicting that Ebola could infect 1.4 million people by January if it's not brought under control. The WHO has warned that if the outbreak isn't stopped soon, Ebola could become a permanent fixture in West Africa, circulating routinely like malaria.

The United States is sending 3,000 troops to West Africa to help with the disaster effort, helping to build hospitals and deliver critical supplies. The United Nations announced it will send a medical mission to the region. The World Bank announced today that it will nearly double its assistance in the Ebola fight, to $400 million.

The head of Doctors Without Borders told the United Nations today that those offers of help aren't making a difference.

"The reality on the ground is this: The promised surge has not yet delivered," said Joanne Liu, the group's international president. "Fear and panic have set in as infection rates double every three weeks. ... Today, Ebola is winning."

The group's 150-bed hospital in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, opens for just 30 minutes each morning, admitting only a few additional patients, to fill beds vacated by those who died overnight.

"The sick continue to be turned away," Liu said, "only to return home and spread the virus among loved ones and neighbors."

President Obama spoke to the United Nations today, urging other countries to follow the United States' example.

"We are not moving fast enough," Obama said. "Everyone has to do more. ... We cannot do this alone."

Speed is critical, Obama said. By acting quickly, the world can save thousands of lives.

"It is a marathon," Obama said, "but you have to run it like a sprint."

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